Cal Football: Vice President Mike Pence Holds Productive Call with College Sports Leaders

In an interview with Cal Sports Report last week, Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton said there still were too many possibilities to accurately speculate about whether we will have a college football season in the fall.

On Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence talked for an hour on the phone with leaders from college athletics, including members of the College Football Playoff management committee, in opening discussions aimed at hopefully rescuing the 2020 season.

Pence expressed optimism, a source told Sports Illustrated, and the call was described as positive and productive in nature. Perhaps most important, a second call is expected to be held within the next month.

Here's the entire SI story on Pence's phone conversation with college football leaders.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious diseases expert, said he can envision sports returning at some point this summer -- but only if games are played in empty stadiums with no fans.

"There's a way of doing that," Fauci told Snapchat's Peter Hamby as part of a weeklong interview series. "Nobody comes to the stadium. Put [the players] in big hotels, wherever you want to play, keep them very well surveilled. ... Have them tested every single week and make sure they don't wind up infecting each other or their family, and just let them play the season out."

Here is SI's full story on Dr. Fauci's remarks on the topic.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told CNN he cannot envision large gatherings, such as sporting events or concerts, in his city until 2021.

"It's difficult to imagine us getting together in the thousands anytime soon, so I think we should be prepared for that this year," Garcetti told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room."

In our conversation with Knowlton, the Cal AD said nothing is off the table at this point.

“The best model is we’re playing, everybody is healthy and we’ve got 60,000 fans in our stadium. The other far boundary is the season is canceled," he said. “What we’re looking at is everything in between, from changing the schedule to games without fans. I've got literally 20 different courses of action."

*** In the video below, SI's Pat Forde talks about how colleges hoping to fund additional spring sports eligibility are relying on profits generated by football: